Korea and Japan are reportedly pushing to resume this year a Director-level meeting on shipbuilding that has been suspended since 2019, according to reports on the 10th.
This meeting was created in 1985 by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources (then the Ministry of Commerce and Industry) and Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism to discuss bilateral trade issues. Korea-Japan shipbuilding Directors met regularly one to two times a year. A total of 39 meetings were held through May 2018.
It was then suspended as relations soured after Japan, in response to the Korean Supreme Court's ruling on compensation for forced labor in 2019, removed Korea from its "whitelist" (countries given preferential treatment in export screening).
Japan is said to have requested the resumption of this meeting. With China's influence in the global shipbuilding industry continuing to expand, the two countries reportedly judged that the need to share issues and cooperate has grown.
In the shipbuilding industry, both Korea and Japan are seen as shipbuilding powerhouses, but their strengths differ, leaving room for cooperation. Japan, as a shipping nation in the world's No. 2 tier, has strengths in shipping and also holds fundamental technologies in shipbuilding equipment based on a long track record. Korea has strengths in ship production methods and construction competitiveness, as well as in gas carriers such as liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers.
A Ministry of Trade and Industry (MOTI) official said, "Both Korea and Japan have long been engaged in shipbuilding, so although the scales differ, the immediate challenges are similar," adding, "Because the areas where each can do well are different, finding ways to cooperate is the top priority."
Meanwhile, the working-level steel consultation channel that was suspended along with shipbuilding in 2019 has already been reactivated starting in 2024. Korea's Ministry of Trade and Industry (MOTI) and Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry hold discussions once a year, alternating between the two countries, on steel market conditions, regulations, anti-dumping, and other issues. In the gas sector as well, working-level consultations involving officials from Korea's Ministry of Trade and Industry (MOTI) and Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry are being held almost monthly by video.